I love you IPA

After spending some time on the giant yard/paths/decks project that has been ongoing for two-three months (and was supposed to be done before the baby was born) I decided I also need to check on my  beer fridge.  And I found that the CO2 was empty.  Sonofa.... I just filled it less than a month ago.  Short version is that the keg of IIIPA has a bad seal I think.  But I plan to replace the regulator regardless, and start drinking the IIIPA but not keep the CO2 cranked on to that keg.  Luckily I am smart enough to know that I am too lazy to fix stuff immediately, and I bought a small back up CO2 tank last month.

But I cleaned the fridge, cleaned the taps and flushed each line with a half glass of beer (cloudy, but still tastes like beer, so of course I drank them) and had my first glass of IIIPA out of my fridge.  Not a bad day.  I have two kegs that are almost done, but I got tired of waiting for them to be empty to find the pressure problem.  Maybe I don't need to replace the regulator.  We will see tonight.  I posted a couple pics on facebook which is quicker than putting them here, so check em out if you are in to that kind of thing.

And I am at beer 914 or something with the help of Firestone Walker Parabola from Nate and a few other beers since last Wednesday.  Plus I have a couple more great ones ondeck.  And yes, still have over 50 others ondeck.  And probably need to brew some more beer soon.  So maybe this blog won't die after all...

Also a great add for southern comfort includes this photo.  Which will be my new avatar.  If anyone can find me a brown speedo to wear that would be awesome.

1,000, here I come

I just crested 900 different beers consumed with my 904th beer Wednesday.  I took a night off from beers last night (passed out with the baby sleeping on my chest if you want to get specific) but with today being Friday, plan to get back on the train and maybe even share a Parabola with Nate and Barb tonight.  Also open another Shaun's Pale and a Sierra Nevada to taste test again.  Shaun reported getting lots of head from the couple beers he opened the last couple days, so we need to investigate if that has happened with the couple I have had in the fridge for a week.  And I of course have tons of other beers to try and plan to get a few of those checked off this weekend while we enjoy our new deck.

I also picked up a few more 32 oz cans of the Moonlight Ale from Cold Spring and the Stone 16th Anniversary beer in addition to the 8th beer of the Apocalypse from Elysian.  Excited about all this, but comes with a catch.  For some reason the distributor didn't get Hop N Grape his cases of the 7th beer of the Apoc.  So unless his guy comes through with a case, I will miss one out of the 12 beer series.  Heres to hoping he gets hooked up so I can get hooked up.  It would be a shame to spend $100 on these beers and be missing one...

Also found a sweet site looking up a hard cider I bought. http://www.nonsnobbeer.com/  I got the Cherry Bomb, so hope it is better than the standard Hard Cider because according to this blog it sucks.  But according to one of the posts, the guy just doesn't know what "real" hard cider is supposed to taste like.  I will have to be the judge since we make our own.

drinking again

It's nice to be drinking again.  Not a bunch with two little kids at home, but a beer here, a beer there.  Finally had my bottle of MacPelican's from Pelican Brewery on the coast.  That was super good.  Also had bought another bottle of Red Rocket from Bear Republic since it was so good.  Shared both of these with my dad and we were both impressed.  MacPelican's was one of their more expensive beers at almost 9 bucks, but would recommend trying it at least once if not more often.  Red Rocket was about 5.50, and I think I should keep that in stock its so good.  Kind of like the Sierra Nevada harvest beers at 5.50 each.

But even better than that, I had a couple of the 32 oz cans of micro brew from Cold Spring in Minnesota.  3.99 for 32 oz, and they are good.  I mean good.  The Moonlight ale is a black and tan according to untapped, and the Ipa was really good.  I plan to get some more of these after I try the Almond Honey Weiss I still have waiting in the fridge.

And to address the lack of posting and pictures, we are now fully addicted to Untapped, posting the beers we drink and photos on that app.  So sorry this site is so bare.  We should be making some beer again soon, but as most of those pics end up on facebook, our little blog is hanging on by a thread.  Maybe once wiffleball is over Nate will come back.

staying alive

An occasional post to keep this thing alive until we can get back to it regularly.  I missed brewfest in preperation for the baby coming last Saturday.  But after getting some baby furniture put together I brewed an all grain batch of 4 Cats Hefeweizen that Friday in preperation for Heather's wedding in September.  So all was not lost at L-Town Brewing.  I also stopped drinking for most of July in support of Abby not being able to drink.  Which means I have a TON of beer at my house still.

Well, the baby was born Saturday, hence me posting at 6:45 on a Friday morning.  With a 2 1/2 year old getting up between 6 and 8 every morning and a 1 week old getting up when ever he feels like it, beer making is on the back burner and beer drinking is likely back, but reduced to one or two every couple days.  That being said, the SNPA I helped Shaun brew last month is ready in time for Angela's birthday.  And I have one of those in the fridge.  And Garrett brought over a Russian Imperial Raspberry Stout that he brewed.  And he left an extra.  It was excellent and I want to drink the other one.  And one of Abby's co-workers has a husband who brews, and he posted on facebook he has a Chocolate Cherry Stout he saved for Abby, which means I get to try that too.  So excited.

And of course I have all the beers from my beer list to try with at least 60 ondeck still.  Including three very fancy Firestone Walker beers that Nate picked up, a true belgian, and a sour from Cascade Brewing.  Those 5 bottles are about $75 total so should make for some very tasty and expensive drinking.  Plus I have the first 6 beers of the apocolypse still chilling and I hope to finally try those at about $50 total.  Good thing I make a lot of the beer I drink.  Otherwise I would have no money at all.  After my hiatus I am at 882 beer tasted and even if I didn't buy another new beer I have 60 in waiting which will put me almost to 950.  Time to get started.  Well maybe in about 8-10 hours...

MIA

sorry we are MIA.  Nate is too busy drinking to post.  We haven't made any beer in awhile, so nothing to report there.  And I have put my beer list on hold for a few weeks in preparation of the baby coming next week.  But in August we will post some shit.  Plus Nate is at brewfest this weekend so will likely have some good beers to report on next week when he recovers.

sorry so busy

man, getting to be one post a week lately.  Sorry to both our readers.  We transferred two beers last night, Shaun's Pale, or SNPA, into the secondary for a couple weeks of dry hopping, and the IIIPA into a couple kegs to hopefully enjoy end of next week.  I also saved the yeast which went from the IIIPA into the SNPA and now back into the fridge.  That super yeast finished of Shaun's beer in about 9 days, so I think we will save it to do another IPA next month (maybe fresh hops?) and start going crazy on some dark beers this month.  Once we drink all these crazy wheat beers we were trying out.  I would like to post some pictures, but I just realized I don't think I took any.  We were too busy tasting some fruit cream ales I found for Barbara and transferring beers.

Oh and I would be remiss to thank Nate for the awesome birthday present.  3 bottles of Firestone Walker, the 15th anniversary, this year's Sucaba, and this years Parabola.  These are going to be so good.  Once they hit the lips.  Oh man.

 And here's a picture from the gnome garten my biers.

Bier Garten

German for Beer Garden, and the reason you won't find many posts this week.  My fridge is over flowing, and now that I have a beer fridge, that is overflowing too.  Not a bad problem to have.  Plus the Lions Beer Garden is tomorrow, and they are having Fort George in addition to the normal canned beers.  So between that (lovingly referred to as Go 3rd, the Go 4th holiday, Nate having a few days off and then me having a few days off for my birthday, we will see you next week.

These are a few pics from a few years ago.  My buddy Mark selling tokens.  And the craziness that is our little hometown beer garden.

I am transferring to this lions club today.  So I plan to sign up and sell some tokens next year.  They are moving it across the street, plus adding a band, inside toilets instead of porta pottys and most importantly, bringing Fort George.

Transfer and Brew

So last night I finally found time to transfer the IIIPA into the secondary for some dry hopping.  I sure hope this turns out as spectacular as it is supposed to.  I forgot to taste a sample and measure gravity so I am pretty much just wishing and hoping.  And drinking.

Tonight I help Shaun brew a batch of pale ale, and with the copious amounts of yeast I saved from the IIIPA we should be bubbling about 15 minutes after we start fermentation.

The summer of brewing is here.

Also, a pic of my main job at the brewery, Head of Sanitation.

And my new brewers shirt from the good people at Full Sail.

Hop Cast

Found a mention of this site Hop Cast, like pod casts but about beer, on the untapped badge list.  Pretty cool.  We are hoping to transfer the IIIPA tonight and add another giant bunch of hops, so it is an appropriate link I think.

I was beer tasting on the way to and from a family reunion this weekend.  I got to hit up Laht Neppur in Waitsburg, then Skye Book & Brew in Dayton, then Full Sail in Hood River on the way home.  Between those and some other beers last week, I am at 844.  And the fergieweizen was a big hit at the reunion (dubbed Fergie Fest, hence the name) and tonight the Abby's Hefeweizen and NWWPA that I put on tap last week should be ready.  Plus Shaun wants to brew a SNPA tomorrow.  If not for having to go to work every week, life would be perfect.

imperial tasting

We tasted some beers, or to be specific, some imperial IPAs.  Pliny, Hoptimum, Dick's Imperial, Dogfish Head 90 Min and Widmer Nelson Imperial.  I guess technically Pliny doesn't list itself as an imperial, but all these beers were 8% or more ABV, and its spendy and hard to find, so its basically an imperial in my book.

These beers are outstanding.  If you haven't had all of them, you need to go to the store right now and make that happen.  You might want to buy two.  I'm just saying.

Is July Here Yet?

Head on over to OregonCraftBeerMonth.com and start planning your vacation calender.  Besides BrewFest of course, I really want to hit up PuckerFest this year and finally go to Belmont Station as well as By The Bottle in Vancouver on the way down or back, or sometime this month at least.  I still have hundreds of beers to try at Hop N Grape of course, but it is fun to check out other places and maybe catch a few brews from some breweries Dave doesn't stock.  I am up to about 812 beers on my list or so with an IPA tasting planned for tonight during the next game of the NBA finals.  So should probably hit 816 or more tonight.

That would put me about 438th on the Career RBIs list, but the top of the list is unreachable up over 3000.  About 240th on the Career BBs list, but again, the top is unreachable.  Career doubles I have already taken 1st, amazingly the leader had 792, not too many more than Barry's home runs.  I also looked up career hits in the MLB, but that is out of reach.  (It was interesting to find though that Ichiro is 1st, 10th & 18th on the single season records.  That's like coming in first, second and fifth in a jack off contest, but with less mess.  Impressive to say the least.)

So I settled on Stolen Bases, because as it turns out I just passed Tim Raines at 5th and can get to 4th if I catch Ty Cobb at 897.  So I think 900 is my next mark to go for.  I was always fast in baseball and still am kind of fast in softball.  As well as tied for first in the wiffle ball league for SBs.  Henderson is in 1st with over 1400, so getting to the top will take awhile, but I am committed to excellence and will persevere and put in the hours, so I should get there.

all grain vs extract

I don't know which is better yet, but there are definitely a lot of differences in the two styles of brewing.  I thought it was just brew more for less and it takes a little longer.  But there are so many differences I can't even list them all.  Apparently our first batch was already ready, not three weeks like extract would have taken.  And the IIIPA will likely only take a week or two also since I think we didn't get the temperature high enough in the mash.  So it may not be as strong as hoped, but will be sweet and hoppy and probably still amazing.  We had two buckets of hops.  Crazy hops.

Regardless, our first batch from a couple weeks ago is now in kegs, because it was already ready.  And although not carbonated yet, the Abby's Hefeweizen tastes awesome.  Plus we kegged the Mystery GYO NWWPA, so in a week we should get to taste both those.  I kind of forgot to taste the second one because cleaning and filling three kegs took way longer than anticipated with distractions like the NBA finals and drinking a couple Sam Adams beers.  Griffen's Bow is not bad and is a 10% blonde barleywine ale.  I didn't know such a thing existed, but if you want to sleep good tonight you should try one.  Also had their Tasman Red, a Red IPA, and that was good.  I would buy it again.

A couple weeks off from brewing, but we will keep you posted on the results of drinking over that time.  And if we slip in a brew we will be sure to report it so both of you can read about it.

806, tasting, and all grain

We brewed another batch of all grain, this time The Judge GYO IPA.  I think its a triple, since we had a couple buckets of hops we added over 90 minutes.  We got two carboys full of hoppy sweet goodness.  So my closet is happy again with 5 carboys full right now.  The keg fridge was a success with three beers on tap and more in bottles we had at least 5-10 visitors while brewing Sunday.  And everyone is nice enough to say they like all the beer so far, which is awesome.

And to top it off, we cracked a bottle of Fergieweizen and Apocaweizen (a blend of the Fergie and Apoc) and it tasted like Apocalypso.  No surprise since that's the stronger beer.  But it's cool we have a handful of bottles of the Apoc so I can take them along to fergie fest.  But between those and the Grain Belt Premium, I hit 806 yesterday.  I am moving up that Tennis career win ladder.

And if you haven't heard of that last beer, that is because my neighbor brought it over when he heard I was keeping a list of different beers.  It's a midwest staple, probably similar to a Schahfer or something like that.  The August Schell Brewery has a ton of what appear to be micros, but they are multi state and the bottles just look like they are all cheap beer.  But the beer wasn't that bad, and they may actually be one of those rare big breweries that actually does more than just lager.  If anyone has a multipack of their beers I would love to trade for something in our area.  Cheers!

800 and counting

Thanks to a tasty tray of beers from Hop N Grape on Friday while planning out the first all grain batch with the Judge, and a couple new beers this weekend while brewing and then in between wiffleball and softball, and lastly the consumption of an excellent Rouge Double Mocha Porter last night, I am officially at 800.  It will take me weeks to get them all into untapped (cool app by the way, thanks Nate) and I should be a master or whatever badge they give you when you pass 500...

Ninkasi and Fort George and Rogue and Southern Tier and Southern Oregon and Widmer and Pyramid and Fat Tire and oh my oh my, this has been a good month already...

The Cowlitz Black Bears have their home opener tonight, so probably some stadium beers so no new beers, but maybe one when I get home.  It's so good, once it hits the lips...

trial all grain batch

Thanks to the Judge, we have brewed up a first trial batch using the all grain set up.  Not to hard, kind of like extract brewing it seemed a lot harder until you do it yourself.  I am too tired to upload photos twice, but there are bunch on facebook. http://www.facebook.com/eriknabby.guttormsen

I'm about 80% sure that I didn't screw something up.  Because 60% of the time it works every time.  Just like Sex Panther Cologne.  Couple weeks we shall see.  As long as the Abby's Hefeweizen doesn't explode all over my closet....